Turbulent Inflow Generation for the Large-Eddy Simulation Technique Through Globally Neutral Buoyancy Perturbations

An ongoing challenge in broadening the adoption of the large-eddy simulation (LES) technique to practical engineering flows is the need to generate turbulent inflow conditions that can trigger and sustain the expected energy cascade of turbulence in the flow domain. Several methods for generating realistic turbulent inflow conditions have been proposed, each with strengths and weaknesses, yet the topic of turbulent inflow boundary conditions remains an active research area. We investigate the method of buoyancy perturbations by Muñoz-Esparza et al.1,2 for the turbulent channel flow case, and extend it to better simulate the expected first and second order turbulence statistics. Our results show that buoyancy perturbations can be practical for generating turbulent inflow conditions, but turbulence statistics are dependent on the specifics of the implementation